Wings, Hearts, and Broken Bones
by Tea52
Summary: The thing about Mickey, you would know for sure that she was an idiot who loved food insatiably. However, that was about it. Nico di Angelo doesn't mind knowing only this much, and has no interest in learning any more. That is, until he accidentally finds an important treasure of Mickey's that no one was ever supposed to find. Go on and find what's in store for for these two!
1. Chapter 1

_Hi, this is me, the original author of the horrible story called __Mickey Evans with a Black Hole for a Stomach__ in 2011. I told you guys that I would be rewriting the story, and I have finally come to it._

_For those who slightly remember the horrible story two years ago, you'll know what will likely happen, and thank you to everyone who will read this story._

_I hope you'll like it this way, especially since my stupid sense of humor has completely faded since sixth grade._

_*Warning: Slight cursing involved_

* * *

"Mickey, darling. You do know, that, the point of the game of dodgeball is to throw the ball to the other team right?" Conner said, bringing the ice-pack closer to his swollen eye, glaring at his half sister with the other.

"I said I was sorry, let it go! Even the Ares girls didn't whine as much as you when they were hit by a ball!" Mickey exclaimed, not yet admitting that the entire incident was her fault. An incident that started with an innocent malfunctioning in her arm and the fact that the Ares kid on the other side ducked, and Conner happened to be behind said person. Needless to say, he has a enough rubber in his diet now.

"That's because they're _Ares_ girls! They would have eaten you!" Conner replied, throwing his free right arm in hysterics.

"If Mickey didn't eat them first." Travis joked, earning a high-five from Mickey and a harder scowl from his twin.

"Oh, hardy-har-har. Let's all laugh at Conner the whiny teenager with a half-sister that eats beyond human limits and a twin brother who cares not a bit for him, ha, ha, HA!" The curly-haired boy exploded, throwing his hands in the air, his ice-pack in his left hand.

The ice-pack soon flew out of his fingers and was soaring through the air, though the trio didn't really mind. After all, the one who needed that was in a hyper anger mode and couldn't care less where the thing landed.

"We'll make it up to you, stop shouting." Mickey said, trying to calm Conner down, who was breathing heavily, his swelling showing completely, making her whisper 'ewe'.

"'We'? I, did absolutely nothing to give my baby brother a shiner as big as his butt. _You_ threw the ball, so _you_ need to make it up to him. I am neutral party in this courthouse." Travis said, washing his hands of all responsibility in the matter.

But his half-siblings were frozen, staring in shock and morbid fear. Travis froze, unable to understand what had made his siblings act like so.

"What? Jealous?" Travis joked, only to have his siblings suddenly run away from him.

Curious, he looked behind him and gasped.

"So, it was you dickhead?" Clarisse said, looming over his head. On her head was the icepack that Connor abandoned earlier. The violent Aries girl must have thought it was Travis who did it, as he was now alone.

Travis, noticing the icepack perching firmly on Clarisse's, slowly started backing away.

"Clarisse! Darling! I... like what you did with your hair? Is that French vogue? Ha ha, well today I'm busy busy busy, so see you soo-" The older twin rambled, trying to be inconspicuous in his escape, when Clarisse grabbed his collar.

"I'm going to pummel you inside out, Pebbles." She said, glaring venomously.

Immediately Travis tried running, but her grip was like stone.

"Connor! Mickey! Where the hell are you two traitors?!" Travis shouted and saw Clarisse pivot her arm back for a matching black eye with Connor.

"Wait! I'm your boyfriend's brother!" Travis tried to compromise, which looked pathetic from the vision of two 'innocent' bystanders hiding near the Aphrodite cabin.

"Like she hasn't heard that one before." Conner scoffed, half of his desire of revenge satisfied.

"Yeah. And it's _half_ brother. He of all people should know the difference by now." Mickey said, resting her chin on her hand.

"All the more reason to punch his face in." Connor turned to his half sister, and looked dangerously happy at her.

A few seconds went by before Mickey asked,

"What?"

"Seeing Travis like that means karma's at work, and being a really big bitch about it, so, that means it's gonna get you next." Connor said happily, a little _too_ happily.

Mickey scoffed and put her arm around her half brother's neck, and started walking.

"Connor, darling. You _do_ know that karma is a total sweetheart for me, right? I've done so many many many MANY things to deserve quite an ass kicking from her, and I have yet to endure it." Mickey said.

"That's how Travis was like, and now he's getting a fist delivery from Clarisse." Conner replied, looking back to said twin, then wincing.

"Oh, that must of hurt." He whispered, and unconsciously moved his hands to the front of his pants.

"What hurts?" Mickey asked, trying to look back, but then was stopped by Connor.

"You don't want to know."

Soon the half-siblings found themselves in the archery practice center, not really caring that the Hermes cabin was supposed to be at the climbing walls then.

"Hey, Kevin! Over here!" Mickey suddenly shouted, drawing his attention.

"Hey Mickey. Hi Con- Holy smokes man what happened?" Kevin exclaimed, looking at his half-blood brother's black eye.

"Oh this _lovely_ thing? Well, I got this half the price at the GET YOUR FACE RAMMED BY A BALL YOUR SISTER THREW." Connor started, directing his whole attention in the last part to Mickey.

"It's your fault for standing there." She replied, looking at the other direction.

"I am completely innocent in the matter." Mickey continued.

"I sincerely doubt that." Both Kevin and Connor said, the two then high-fiving each other.

"Look, if you guys want to blame somebody, blame the god of physics or Isaac Newton. Actually the one who was really at fault is still Connor himsel-" Mickey had started walking in a random direction until she crashed headfirst with another person.

"Ow." Both people muttered as they fell. Mickey looked up and suddenly her eyes was met with a wall of black.

She stared for a bit, trying to separate and piece together a human from the block blob she was seeing, until it started walking away.

"Oh, sorry dud-"

"Watch where you're going next time." The person's gruff voice rudely cut through Mickey's stilted apology, earning quite a reaction from the girl.

"Excuse me? Sorry I crashed into you, dude, but I believe we're both at fault here." Mickey exclaimed, though tried being calm. She did **not** want to start an argument when she was already having one with her half-siblings.

The boy turned around and let his sharp eyes glare at Mickey's.

"Actually, it was your fault, and your fault in this matter was standing at the entrance and blocking the way with a stupid chat. And you might want to stop being so short. Try to grow some why don't you, you vertically challenged munchkin." He quipped, his eyes showing a slight humor but mostly a disinterest for the conversation, and then went on his way to preparing a bow.

Mickey stood dumbfounded, and then got the inane urge to punch the guy's lights out.

"Woah, woah there, Chuckles." Connor said, and gripped her arm.

"Nico probably's peeved off about something. Usually he would just ignore you." The younger twin said, noticing the steam whistling out of Mickey's ears.

"Really? I think he's being the jackass he usually is." Kevin sneered, casting his gaze at the son of death.

"You're not helping me by saying that." Connor said.

"Like you can actually cover the guy. Even after the whole war he still acts like a jerk." Kevin replied, crossing his arms, but keeping his attention to Connor's intact eye.

"Hey hey, you haven't even directly talked to Nico. Heck, you weren't even here for the war-"

"Where's Mickey?" Kevin interrupted, looking for the trouble-making (which is basically everyone in the Hermes cabin) half-witted half sister.

"What? She's gone?" Connor twisted to the left and right, and spotted Mickey standing next to Nico, probably asking for a challenge.

"Oh gods, what's she gonna do now." He grumbled, then started making his way to the two.

Kevin, also noticing Connor's line of sight followed behind.

While her two half-brothers were having a small talk whether or not Nico was really the jackass his first impression gave, Mickey had strode to the far end of the archery range where Hades' son perched himself and was already pulling the arrow back.

"Hey." Mickey said, trying to get his attention, only to have him ignore her. He seemed wholly focused in the far-away bullseye. The Hermes girl huffed, not wanting to be that nagging annoying chick, but then met the conclusion that she already crossed that line.

"HEY!" She shouted, though no reaction ensued from the opposing side. A few seconds later though Nico let go of the arrow, however it landed two inches right of the red bullseye.

Mickey, noticing the blunder scoffed.

"Ha, you didn't match the target. I bet I could've got it." Mickey said, now purposely trying to annoy the boy.

"Could you, tiny? I seriously doubt that a pint size like you could even hold the bow right." He smirked, going along with the pathetic defense the Mickey girl was trying to make.

Right there, though, something immediately snapped in her head that urged her to make a challenge. Coincidentally, the thing that snapped was her tolerance (though really, it should have been Nico in her place. He seemed to have a shitload of patience that Mickey has never seen before.)

Just then, Connor and Kevin made their entrance between their sister and Nico, both of them seeming peeved.

"Mickey, what are you doing?" Kevin beat Connor to it, asking the question that even the demigod herself wanted to know.

"How about we make a bet? If I make more bullseyes than you, out of three, then you have to do stable duty for two weeks." Mickey proclaimed. Maybe she _was_ being pushy, maybe she _could've_ ignored his comments, but she wasn't like that. She was an immature fourteen-year-old and she was going to live up to that name until she becomes an adult.

Nico raised an eyebrow and let his bow lean against the rack, then stood in front of Mickey.

Perhaps this could let him off some steam. He's been stressed lately with the new job his father had given him of collecting souls from the dead in Manhattan, and defeating an annoying little girl would actually give him a little joy.

So he would play along. It didn't hurt he was bored as well, and the latter both annoyed and amused him.

"And if I win?" Nico asked. Steam whistled out Mickey's ears once again.

_'Jackass'_

She thought and motioned Kevin to hand her a bow.

"Whatever you want, I don't care." She said then stopped when she saw the curved and arrows given to her by Kevin. They were the ones people regularly used, except, Mickey didn't use them. She used the training bow and arrows, much smaller and lighter than the real deal.

Hesitantly Mickey grasped the wood, and when her half-brother let go, she and the bow went crashing down on the floor.

_'My gods, this is heavy. How do the Apollo kids handle this?!'_

Mickey then heard a small snicker from the son of Hades.

"Does Tinker Bell need some help holding her heavy bow?" Nico cooed, obviously noticing Mickey's red ears and let her walk past him to the next target.

She wasn't very sure she was going to win the dare, and Mickey could only imagine what horrid things the Nico kid was going to make her do.

Taking a large breath, Mickey stretched the string, stopped stretching because it was too hard, pivot her arm back and... Let go. Mickey closed her eyes because in her happy place she was wishing that the arrow **did** land on the red dot, until that hope was crushed when she heard:

"Ooh, sorry Mickey." Connor said, using his hands as binoculars, and saw it landed in the yellow zone, no where near the bullseye.

"But not bad for your first time using the regular bow." Connor said.

"How is not bad?!" Mickey asked. How could she have done any worse?

"You could've shot someone." Oh, right.

Mickey then turned to Nico.

"Five out of seven!"

"No. I don't have _that_ much free time." He replied, then proceeded to pivot the arrow backwards.

The next moment he shot the arrow, landing perfectly on the bullseye.

'_I'm so gonna lose.'_

Mickey thought, until Kevin clapped her shoulder.

"C'mon, win that guy! Focus just above the target, Mickey!"

"Why are you so fired up?"

"I just made a bet with Connor!"

Mickey made an exasperated face, knowing that her siblings were going to make a bet sooner or later, but took in Kevin's advice.

Making her right arm straight in front of her, Mickey aimed for the small space above the red bullseye. A tiny speck that hovered above the target that would probably be impossible to hit.

Her face turning red because she was running out of air, Mickey closed her eyes once again and let go.

"There you go!" Kevin exclaimed. Mickey peeked and saw the arrow lodge itself in the bullseye.

"Ha ha! See that, ghost boy?" Mickey shouted, her hands clapping Kevin's from above, and then below.

Nico ignored her and prepared for his turn.

'_Goddamn jerk.'_

Mickey thought sourly, then quickly turned to her half-brother.

"Interference required, interference required!" She whispered, earning a nod.

Mickey looked in the direction opposite of Nico while Kevin crept to a distance behind the boy, left of him.

With Mickey at Nico's right, and Kevin at his left, there was no way he could escape what the two had planned.

Nico let go of the arrow, and as it soared through the air, time seemed to slow down a bit.

In the few seconds before it landed on the target, A small paint ball was blown in the direction of the arrow, disrupting its path.

The change was subtle, as the color of the paint was white like the shaft, and it landed to the right of the red dot, just a few centimeters away from the center.

Nico narrowed his eyes as he thought he saw something coming from his left, but when he looked over what he saw was just Kevin, crossing his arms and seeing whether or not Nico's turn could be counted as a win. The change was barely noticeable to the three, until Mickey literally ran to the target and inspected it closely.

"Mickey! Get out of there, you'll get shot!"Kevin exclaimed. Mickey spent a few more seconds looking at it, right and left, until she cupped her hands to the two.

"It's out!" She shouted, then sprinted back.

"Hey where's Connor? I didn't see him."

"He went to get another ice pack. It'll take a while for him to get back."

"Anyways, good job!" She whispered.

"Close one though."

"Yeah, too close."

"Hurry up. I don't have all day." Nico said, glaring at the two's suspicious conversation.

Mickey walked back in front of her target and started to gulp a large breath or air when she suddenly stopped and said,

"Hope you enjoy stable duty." Nico's monotonous face didn't change as he replied,

"Says Tinker Bell before she reveals where Peter Pan lived."

Mickey, still mad, tried to conceal her rage with a good-hearted smile and put her arrow in position.

Then suddenly, Kevin felt an itch inside his nose. Then the indescribable urge to sneeze came upon him.

_'Oh shit.'_

He thought and immediately pinched his nose

_'Just until Mickey makes her shot.'_

He repeated to himself, holding his breath. It didn't matter to him how stupid he looked or the fact that Nico was watching him with slightly confused eyes. When it came to him that the boy was about to sneeze, he smirked.

Kevin didn't hear Mickey let go of the arrow yet. Heck, he couldn't even see because he squeezed his eyes shut in order to help him keep the sneeze in.

But it was too much, because in 1... 2... 3...!

"ACHOO!"

Startled, Mickey jumped and let go of the arrow at the same time, only to make a horrified face.

"Dude!" She shouted, putting her face right in front of Kevin in pure horror.

"I'm sorry!"

"Why didn't you hold it in?!"

"Don't you think I tried to do that?!"

While the two were having their argument, Nico's eyes quietly followed the awry arrow Mickey let lose. He watched as the arrow bumped against an Ares' kid's shield, then to the lantern in the ceiling, only to hit a flying shield that was conveniently being a frisby and made its way to the ground when...

"Hey, I'm back! Did anybody win yet?" The two Hermes kids that were arguing stopped their conversation just in time to see the stray arrow fly in and land. It made its landing between the spaces of Connor's fingers and onto the ice pack it was holding. Stunned, Connor stopped walking and closed his fingers, definitely feeling the arrow. Then with his left hand he pulled the arrow out of the icepack.

A moment of silence ensued before Connor dropped the pierced ice pack and shouted to Mickey,

"Are you literally trying to KILL me?!"

He bounded to Mickey and fiercely shook her shoulders.

"STOP TRYING TO PIERCE MY EYE!" He shouted, making Mickey dizzy.

"I'm-Sor-Ry!" She said as Connor continued to shake her.

"Okay, from now on, you are not allowed to touch things that can be thrown, shot, or spat, do you understand?" Connor said.

"Per-fect-ly!" With that, the twin let her go, and turned to Kevin.

"Did anybody win, because I would seriously like those twenty-five dollars I betted on Nico."

"Nobody won yet." At the same time Nico let go of his arrow and it hit the bullseye without fail.

Kevin sees it and tells Connor,

"Never mind, you win." Then gets his wallet out of his pocket and hands Connor the bills.

"Mickey, you okay there?" Kevin then asks, seeing his half-sister on the ground, face flat.

Mickey doesn't hear Kevin's question and promptly stand up, though a bit too quickly.

"Oh gods, I think I'm gonna hurl." She mutters, and holds her forehead in an attempt to stop the headache forming.

When she saw three Nicos standing in front of her she thought Hell came to Earth.

"Stop moving, you're making me dizzy." Mickey said, still holding her forehead.

Nico allowed a vexing moment for Mickey so she could regain the mind that she _didn't_ lose, and when she did she shook her head a couple of times and stuck out her hand.

"Good game." Nico looked at the hand as if it was infected, which was actually very noticeable in Mickey's woozy eyes.

"You won, the least we should do is a handshake to formally end this competition."

"As if you can call this a competition." Nico replied, but obliged to shake her hand anyways.

"Now. What have you planned for me you vile demon of darkness?" Mickey snapped, placing her hands on her hips. She was going to meet his dare head on, no matter how disgusting, embarrassing, or just plain wrong it would be, Hermes' Child's Honor.

"Later." He simply said and walked away.

"Ex-cuse me?" Mickey asked quickly. What was going on in that kid's head?

"I'm saving it for later. When I need it." He continued, at least five feet away from Mickey now.

"W-wait a second there! That's cheating!" She exclaimed, pacing to his side.

"So is using a small paint ball to change the course of my arrow." Nico quipped back.

"W-what paint ball? What arrow?" Mickey said, looking away from Nico's eyes and started whistling.

'_Gods, she's bad at lying on the spot for a Hermes kid.'_

The son of Hades thought, but sensed a tiny ringing in his ear.

He sighed and began walking to the shadow of a nearby tree.

"Hey! This conversation isn't over! What about the dare?!"

Nico ignored her shout and sank through the ground, shadow traveling to Manhattan.

Mickey stared at the ground that he once stood, wondering where the heck he went.

But she had to admit, what just happened there was pretty cool. The only thing she hated about that phrase was that she was basically calling Nico cool.

"Mickey! Lunchtime!" Mickey turned around and saw the Apollo kids in the archery range begin leaving, and both of her half-siblings far away from her.

But they said that heavenly word! The absolute manifestation of happiness that Mickey will candidly devour, in a burst of adrenaline and her sanctuary...

Lunchtime.

Forgetting entirely of Nico, Mickey bounded to the lunch pavilion, running past Connor and Kevin, and quickly stood at the buffet table, immediately piling mountains of food onto her plate.

No more archery, no more bets, no more stinking bows, no more Nico! Just some alone time between Mickey, and her food.

With a towering pile of food resting on top the plate, Mickey carefully dodged the campers that passed her, eyeing the turkeys, hamburgers, salads, cheeses and muffins. A whole load of muffins that could feed an army.

Gently placing the dish on the table, the Hermes girl hopped on the seat in front of it and neatly placed a napkin, making sure that it wasn't creased.

Then all the politeness was forgotten and her carnal instinct took place, as she stuffed a chicken leg into her mouth and then spooned some mashed potatoes while still chewing the chicken, and then drinking some milk to wash it down.

Just as her hand was speedily reaching for the ham, someone else's stopped her.

What's this? Someone is _actually_ trying to **stop** her from reuniting her with her happy time?

Just as Mickey was about to bite the offender, she saw Allison.

"What, what's wrong? There better be something wrong or else I'll bite your hand off for getting in the way between me and my foo-" Mickey said, speaking quickly, until was interrupted.

"Where were you? And Connor, and Travis, and, hell, even Kevin? Where were you guys?" Allison inquired. Allison was always a responsible one, basically that nagging older sister to everyone she meets, especially to the ones that were already her siblings. She was also the first one that Mickey actually befriended in the camp, despite her being albeit closer to the guys rather than the girls, so when Mickey hears her talk in a tone like that, she knows better than not to listen.

"What do you mean?" She asked, not seeing the problem. From the fourteen year old's point of view, she saw nothing wrong.

"What do you mean? What do you mean?! Mickey, you and the guys weren't at the climbing wall! Do you know what happens to an economy-sized group of hyperactive thieves that see four people missing and two of them are their cabin leaders, 'cause I'll tell you, it is NOT pretty!" Allison shouted, shaking the half sister, bringing back the migraine Mickey hoped that she would not feel again in the same day.

"Woah. Woah. WOAH." Mickey exclaimed, tearing away Allison's hands from the collar of the orange camp T-shirt.

"Why the heck aren't you talking to the mentioned camp leaders? Or Chiron so he can whoop the boys' butts and not mine?" She asked, staring at the older girl intensely, especially on the second part.

"Because Travis is unconscious in the infirmary, Chiron's busy introducing a new camper, and he kind of intimidates me when he's in horse form, and I spotted Connor a few minutes ago but he and Kevin immediately ran away and I couldn't catch up! So, really, you're the only one I can shout at now." Allison explained, making Mickey raise her eyebrows at the last sentence. The rest of the Hermes cabin was at the tables by then, the people abuzz, asking questions about Travis.

"What happened?" A boy asked, curious to what happened to the sleeping cabin leader.

"Oh, he just got beat up by Clarisse." Mickey casually said, shrugging off the incident.

"Mickey! Don't avoid the question! Where were you guys?" Allison asked again.

"Look, we were just at the archery range, and we, **I**, got in a competition with some guy-" Mickey started, not wanting to mention Nico in the conversation, but knew better than to leave out the most important event, or at least the only thing that actually happened.

"What guy?" Allison asked.

"Just some guy." Mickey answered, trying to avoid bringing up Nico's name.

"Which guy?" Her sister asked again.

"**A** guy."

"Mickey, just tell me! What's his name?" Allison pleaded, now too curious. Just as Mickey was going to answer 'no', she felt a draft, and then heard a shout.

The shout came from above and the source fell right above the Hermes table.

Right on Mickey's food.

Mickey stared, paralyzed, unable to process what just had happened. There was food, and now there was a person.

Suddenly, it occurred to her that she recognized the person that just landed on her precious food she was still eating.

Her face turning red as she tried to keep the scream in, but as the few seconds passed, her siblings already running for cover, she screamed,

"NICO DI ANGELO!"

* * *

_Well, I hope that you enjoyed this rewritten chapter, which I feel is both longer and much better than the one I wrote two years ago._

_If there are any people who did read the original story, I also hope you've seen the improvement (mostly of grammar)._

_With what's been done, I think Nico will be a dead guy in the next chapter (no pun intended), and hopefully you'll be interested enough to read it!_

_So, Thank You for reading! Chapter Two will be updated probably somewhere in the next two weeks._


	2. Chapter 2

_**Chapter Two**_

After shadow-traveling to the urban streets of Manhattan, Nico followed the ringing noise in his ears, looking left and right, trying to pinpoint the source. The sound started getting louder and louder as he approached closer to the recently expired soul.

Finally arriving in an alley, he spotted a shivering apparition, hugging its knees and sitting on the dirtied floor. Nico's black eyes grew cold at the sight, not letting any emotion show as he was a few mere footsteps away from the ghost.

The soul, a man in his forties that endured a terrible car accident in the busy New York highways, widened his eyes and fearfully looked at Nico. Or, in the ghost's mind, the Grim Reaper.

Nico took off his skull ring, its power radiating an icy burn that he was immune to, and a black Stygian sword grew out of the ring.

At the same time, a large, silver, ornate handle also grew, the small skull resting in the middle of the design. Nico's fingers immediately curled around the handle and swung it up high, planning to send the soul to the Underworld.

The soul of the dead man let out a tiny shriek, horrified. He tried shouting, trying desperately to stop the action, but Nico never heard it because within the second, the sword sliced the ghost and transported it to the Fields of Punishment.

Nico then crouched down, whispering a small prayer in the language of skulls, and rose. He was exhausted after the burial prayer, as he's done the same thing six times earlier that day, and a half-godly person like him wasn't strong enough without the full potential of a whole god. Still, Nico did his best to keep his father satisfied, so **he** wouldn't get any ideas of starting a war.

He rested the flat part of the blade on his shoulder and started walking to a shadow when he heard a scream.

A shrill, tiny little scream that was followed by an obnoxiously loud roar of a Grecian monster.

Nico heard no ringing, so the source of the scream must have been still alive, and being already drained of power, Nico did not want to clean up yet another soul.

With that thought in mind, he sprinted out of the shaded alley and turned left, only to abruptly stop at the sight before him.

The hideously magnified face of the Minotaur.

He stood as still as a statue, and the two stared at each other, just daring the other to make the first move. The Minotaur then let out a large and lengthy howl, covering Nico with its disgusting spit.

Nico, who luckily held his breath during that time, coughed at the horrid stench after his first inhale near the monster's mouth, and then dashed at a full sprint in the opposite direction.

There was no way in Mount Olympus that the next time Nico meet his father would be him being dead and part of the Underworld. Literally.

The Minotaur started bounding his heavy hooves against the concrete, chasing the son of death's scent, and let go of a tiny little girl that was nearly crushed between its claws. The girl, once released from the monster's hold, fell onto the sidewalk with bruises and laceration adorning her face, knees, and legs. When her hazel eyes spotted the dark pelt of the Minotaur, both the pain from her body and the utter wooziness she was feeling made her a bit tipsy as she toppled to the ground, unconscious.

Nico finally noticed the small life force behind the Minotaur and cursed under his breath.

_'Just my luck.'_

He thought, and made a direct U-turn, straight towards the bull monster.

The Minotaur huffed and saw Nico's change of course as a test to see just how strong it was. It charged even faster as Nico clutched his sword with both hands like he was going to cut it down.

Both beings accelerated to the point where neither could stop even if they wanted to, but again, neither did. Each had a serious and deadly expression on their face that seemed to say to one another,

_"If you won't back down, I will knock you out of the way."_

Seconds before Nico would be in contact with the Minotaur, he quickly tucked his legs and chin and became a bowling ball, sliding underneath the monster. Before he even came to a halt, Nico untangled himself and bounded to the girl who collapsed.

Quickly, he ran past her and grabbed the back of her shirt, the girl basically flying behind him.

He just kept sprinting with all his might, deleting all care that he could be potentially choking her.

He just had one thought:

'_I have to get the fuck out of here.'_

Nico swung the young girl onto his back and started pounding his feet even harder when the Minotaur's sounds of rage came closer to him. It growled and roared at the two, and when Nico snuck a glance back, he only saw the gleam of its horns pointing straight towards them.

He knew that he had to temporarily kill the grecian monster, otherwise it would only go after a different hopeless soul in the city, one that Nico would eventually have to clean up.

The son of death then noticed a truck in which unfazed workers were unloading large pieces of furniture. One of which, was a queen-sized bed.

Nico, knowing that he wouldn't be able to fight if he had to trouble over an unconscious girl during the battle, flung the injured girl in the direction of the bed and quickly turned around.

He heard the workers say, Woah, meaning the child safely landed on the cot.

Nico relaxed a bit knowing the kid was safe and gripped his sword tightly in his left hand, for it wouldn't be long until the Minotaur would pierce him with its gigantic horns.

Nico waited as the Minotaur came charging at him. And waited.

And waited.

Then, when the monster was just an inch in front of him, Nico jumped, landing soundly on its back. Immediately he grabbed onto the blood-matted fur coat of the Minotaur, the blade pointing at its head.

But before he could pierce the sword and finally kill the monster, it crouched down, gathered enough energy to make even the concrete break, and jumped upwards.

Nico held his breath to avoid the acrid smell of the fur as he clung close to the Minotaur while it soared through the air and landed on the rooftop of a twelve-story high building.

He then opened his eyes, cursing as the streets and people below looked like tiny insects from where he was from.

'_Godsdammit.'_

Nico thought to himself, as he hated high places due to the unfriendliness of his uncle Zeus.

Then the Minotaur, still aware that the son of death was clutching onto it, started shaking violently, growling and pawing the ground as it did so.

Nico definitely held on for dear life, his knuckles even turning white from grabbing the pelt too tightly.

The monster moved around, especially near the edge, letting Nico swing over the streets as it only got angrier and more frustrated with the situation.

Meanwhile, the son of Hades brought his sword close to him, and drove the sword through the Minotaur's body like ash. It had never seen it coming.

As the monster disintegrated into yellow dust, Nico had failed to notice a tiny complication on his hands. The timing of him killing the monster and swinging over the edge at the same time was impeccable, as Nico was already falling through the wind and almost ready to go splat on the ground. He screamed as he fell, cursing himself yet again at how stupid he was.

He willed his body to turn around, shouting as the ground got dangerously closer and closer.

A red light came upon the street, and the moving truck cast a large shadow just where Nico would soon land. He noticed this and shut his eyes tight, thinking of his next destination.

'_Camp Half-Blood! I don't care where, as long as it's __**inside**__ it!'_

The son of death kept his eyes shut and fell through the cement like liquid, enveloped in the quiet chill he felt every time he shadow-traveled.

The darkness seemed to comfort his nerves for a moment, until the blue sky was seen yet again, and Nico found himself falling still.

Shouting, his eyes somehow focused on the bottom, and he saw what seemed to be a mountain of food. Momentarily relieved he'd at least get a softer landing than the ground, he was still not expecting to land there!

Finally, Nico landed on the food with the splat, mustard getting up his nose and chocolate fondue covering his coat that he just had recently washed.

Pain shot every limb, and he cursed the goddess of luck for the accident, still not noticing the people around him. Especially, an infuriated Mickey standing behind him.

Nico didn't even try moving, everywhere hurt so much, but suddenly an incredibly loud voice shook him out of his daze and possibly burst his ear drums.

"NICO DI ANGELO!"

Mickey roughly grabbed Nico's collar, a venomous expression on her face.

"Look here, Di Angelo, I got it. I lost. You don't have to squash my food with your body to rub it in!" Mickey shouted, a vein popping in her head as she was about ready to strangle the life out of the punk.

"First, I wasn't planning to flatten this pile you call lunch. That's just stupid. Second, OW. Are you TRYING to make me deaf?" Nico growled back, both tired and annoyed at what just happened. Some days, he wonders why he even comes to camp.

"Oh, I might as well." The traumatized girl said (you might as well call Mickey traumatized seeing that her wonderful food has been destroyed by a devil of a kid) in a low voice, then suddenly let go of Nico's jacket.

Ever so slowly, she backed away, giving Nico an ominous feeling.

"You better look out, ghost breath. Because you don't know what I'm gonna do to you now. I'll be watching..." Mickey continued slowly, as if in a whisper, pointing at the son of death and backing away from the lunch pavilion.

Nico narrowed his eyes in confusion as he watched the girl walk away backwards, then started to shake his head to bit and mouthed to her as if to say.

'_What?'_

When Mickey completely left the pavilion, a pair of hands clamped themselves on both of Nico's shoulders, immediately turning him around to face yet another Hermes camper.

"Were you the one who Mickey got into a shooting contest with?" It was Allison, being the nosy girl she always was.

"Uh... yeah." Nico intelligently said, wondering who the girl was. He never cared enough to know all of the campers there, or even a quarter of them.

"Ohhh~" Allison said, suddenly backing away as if she burned herself in an hushed tone.

"You're really, really, **really** toast then." The girl said then started walking away, looking at Nico as if he was a dead man, no pun intended.

"Fake vomit time!" Mickey's other siblings shouted, debating on how Nico would meet his untimely demise.

"Or whipped cream face!"

"I'm putting my money on the mud waterfall!"

Nobody knew, not even Mickey's closest siblings within the cabin, that the girl was planning something much more disastrous and diabolical than what they thought.

.

.

.

.

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_Hiya! Sorry it took so long to post this, I could tell you a million of excuses, but I don't want to bore you._

_So, here is Chapter Two! Unlike the original Mickey Evans story, this one actually has a plot!_

_On a side note, please review! I may sound a bit desperate here really desperate, but I really want to see what you think about the story so far. _

_Thank you!_

_See you on the next chapter!_


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter Three**_

* * *

Furious, Mickey speed walked to the Hermes cabin, pushing onlookers roughly away in the process, even going as far as _stepping_ on a guy she pushed over to the ground without saying sorry.

Oh, the act would definitely strike a blow on her conscience alright, but she had something to do.

Something important to do.

To destroy that di Angelo brat.

'_Godsdamn that, that # *$ *!'_

She thought, her facial expression twitching as her mind went into a more violent stage of psychosis. In a blur she kicked the door open, despite it being unlocked, surprising both Kevin and Connor while doing so.

After their run-in with Allison, and their escape, they resided inside the cabin playing poker, using Pringles as their prize. Although, it looked like Connor was winning as his Pringle tower was a lot taller than Kevin's.

"Woah!" They both exclaimed before realizing it was only Mickey. If it was Allison, they would be facing a life time of guilt tripping that would eventually consume them.

"Gods, you scared us Mickster! What are you doing in the cabin... so... early...?" Conner said, not believing that his little sister was already done with lunch, but his voice soon dropped when he noticed the deathly aura she was emitting.

Suddenly she looked sharply at the two, causing them both to flinch and freeze.

Mickey marched to the middle of the poker table and roughly grabbed the Pringle can, stuffing her empty stomach to the remaining chips.

"Hey, we kind of need that...!" Kevin said, however he stopped short when Mickey's death glare was aimed at him. Mickey's gray eyes (the shade of gray that fooled many into thinking she was a daughter of Athena) never looked this venomous, unless it was in the morning and she felt like sleeping in. She rarely did, but when the time came, lets just say that the Hermes siblings would play rock paper scissors to choose who would wake her up.

"You can have them." Kevin continued in a small and timid voice, and then focused on his cards.

Mickey, who already finished what was left of the Pringles, threw the can away behind her, which landed dangerously close to her half-brother's face. She then stomped her way to the chest in front of her bed and thrusted it open.

In there, an assortment of junk was stored, things like a broken bat, numerous candy bar wrappers, and even a half-eaten burger that she _was_ going to eat, but forgot its existence and was now collecting green mold.

Mickey pushed aside all of these objects, blowing a wisp of brown hair out of her face, and pulled out a long black suitcase.

She heaved the case to the bed and unclasped the lock. As Mickey lifted the lid, Kevin and Conner craned their necks and peered over her short statures, gasping at what was inside.

"Mickey, Mickey calm down! That thing causes some major damage!" Conner uttered gravely, raising his hands to defend himself if necessary.

"Yeah." Mickey snarled, looking at the younger Stoll twin.

"Damage on di Angelo's face!" She continued, and pulled the object out, letting the boys behind her have an clear look on what it was and what she was going to do with it.

"Come on Mickey, I hate that guy's guts too, but it's not like you can kill him." Kevin said, trying to reason with the small girl as she whipped out some black face paint on her face and tied her curled brown hair into a ponytail.

All the while, the words **'The Punisher'** gleamed with a dangerous shine and shone like a working neon sign in the middle of a town that's having a blackout.

"You don't kill people with a paintball gun." Kevin finished, but she payed no attention. Both boys then made a wall between Mickey and the door, hoping to stop her.

During that time, she took out black golf gloves and with a merciless expression on her face, grabbed The Punisher and growled in response to her half brothers.

Instantly they stepped aside and let her throw the door open looking like she was going to murder someone.

And that someone, unfortunately for him, was Nico di Angelo.

However, it might be, in fact, **fortunate** for Nico's state of mind as he was idly sitting on his bed, staring at the wall bleakly.

His job was done, the annoying girl was gone, and only silence commenced within the cabin of Hades. He could be taking a well-deserved nap, but his mind could only wonder about what a special day it was today. A special day in which he finally had time to think about, but desperately didn't want to.

Nico kept staring at the wall with wide eyes that looked as if they were going to pop out, hunched in a a small and suffocating position, his hands twitching. The son of Hades then tightly grasped his hair and covered one of his eyes, momentarily enjoying both the pain and coldness his hands conveyed that distracted him for a bit, only to come back to the horrific realization of what a day it was then.

He groaned a long sigh as he kept his dark eyes wide enough to seem as if he was seeing a ghost. And, according to his memories, he was.

Everything was too painful. The silence was like a dozen daggers that implanted themselves on him. Nico was feeling too much torment for someone who was trying to move on. Maybe it was because he wanted to see her too strongly.

How was he able to cope with this traumatic experience in these two years? Now he remembered. He didn't. Nico did everything he could to conveniently be busy or preoccupied with something else. This year, he wanted to confront it head on, face to face.

It never occurred to him that the pain he ignored an bottled up would increase to a tenfold when he decided to face it.

'_No... no, I can't do it.'_

Nico thought.

'_I feel like destroying myself.'_

With that in mind, he knew that this year, he would have to avoid the aching yet again.

'_It's too much, too much!'_

Nico scrambled from his wretched position on the bed and ran to the door, urgent for a distraction.

'_Next time...!'_

He concluded as his hand shakily reached the door knob and pulled, only to meet someone who called be called the goddess of distractions herself.

A ferociously angry Mickey Evans... with a godsdamn paintball gun slung on her shoulder.

'_What... The...?'_

Everything slowed down within the seconds, and in the process the short girl pulled the gun forwards and pulled the trigger as Nico sank through the ground in which his shadow stood and came up behind Mickey. Then he ran like Tartarus away from her towards a tree for a shield.

'_Fuck?!'_

Nico heard Mickey release another shot, and again shadow traveled through the ground by thre tree, making a hideous orange blob land on the wood.

The boy came up again and took the time to examine the Hermes girl's choice of ammunition, also thinking about the hell she'll have from the nymph who owned the tree.

'_Paint?'_

He contemplated faintly, and looked back at Mickey, whose eyes looked like it was burning the flames of the Underworld.

Nico regained his composure and icily asked,

"What do you think you're doing?"

Mickey's eyebrow twitched at his tone.

'_Cocky jackass.'_

She thought as she made her reply.

"Don't you remember, death breath? I warned you! I told you that I would make you pay!" Mickey shouted, a crazed glint in her eyes showing.

"That may be so, but I wasn't expecting it to be only twenty minutes until you make your attack." Nico countered, a migraine coming on. But then he realized something. He needed this. This... abomination of idiocy!

"Then it's just a lesson of not to underestimate me next time!" The girl said, readying the paintball shooter.

"Underestimate? It was more like you just being an idiot and me brushing it off as they were words of a doofus." Nico replied, purposely adding fuel to the fire. The madder Mickey would get, the longer the pursuit would be, at least, this was what he was counting on.

Mickey again felt her string of patience be ripped apart brutally and said no more words as she shot an angry red at the aggravating son of Hades.

Nico took a large step to the right and dove into a shadow like he was diving into a pool. To him, darkness was his pool.

"GET OUT AND RUN LIKE A MAN!" Mickey furiously shouted, turning left and right.

Just when Mickey was unknowingly facing the Aphrodite cabin, Nico came out right in front of her, taking the girl by surprise.

"Catch me if you can, shorty." He simply said before descending into the ground yet again while Mickey made a splot of green on the cabin that the Aphrodite campers took much pride of.

Nico appeared a few feet away from the blinded-by-rage girl, and immediately started sprinting.

"COME BACK HERE FOR A CLEAN KILL, DI ANGELO!" Mickey screamed, and followed him quickly.

She went off firing random stains on different things, places, and people. While some cried or just stayed in place whispering

'_What the fuck?'_

To themselves or even fainted, most campers saw exactly where each blob came from and started running. Running right after Mickey.

Mickey, however, did not notice a strange amount of people that could be called an angry mob that was chasing her, as her eyes and mind were only set on destroying a certain di Angelo.

Her aims always seemed to miss its black-clothed target, making Nico smirk. He's been dodging monster claws way longer than Mickey was in campy, and paintball shot weren't the hardest thing to evade in a wide area like the camp, especially when he was unknowingly heading towards the forest.

Then Nico, who felt like he was taking a mere stroll rather than a full sprint since he was barely out of breath, felt it was time for another blow on Mickey's dignity and looked back when he finally noticed the number of his pursuers had increased to a tenfold.

'_What the Tartarus is happening here?! How did I not hear them?'_

He thought loudly in his head. Had the adrenaline set in his head made him also deaf to his surroundings? Maybe, just maybe, he was having way too much fun in this one-sided game of tag.

"Oy, diabolical cartoon mouse! Have you noticed the crowd you seemed to have attracted?" Nico shouted behind him. Mickey ignored his question and pulled the trigger whilst aiming at his head. Only, it didn't land on his head, much to Mickey's dissatisfaction, it hit his right arm, causing him to stumble forward and almost fall flat on his face.

"Are you listening to me?!" Nico shouted, again looking back. But what he saw was a seething girl who looked dangerously armed with a paintball gun named _The Punisher._

'_Oh, oh shit.'_

He thought when he realized he made the short girl too mad. Way too mad.

His small slip had gained Mickey some distance between them, but still not close enough to fire a deadly hit. She growled in annoyance and started as running as hard as she could. At the same time though, so did Nico. There was no way that he would let himself get trampled by over a quarter of the campers in Camp Half-Blood, especially when he knew that Mickey would probably slap his corpse.

The campers behind the two demigods were getting tired though. Some found the activity tiring with no point and started to cease their running.

"Dude, what was the point of this?"

"I don't know, but when people started chasing after that girl, I was thinking, 'Hell, I better join them too'."

"Oh well. Want to raid stuff from the gift shop?"

"I got dibs on the T-shirts!"

Murmurs along the lines of _'Why the hell did we start running?'_ began to erupt among the crowd, and a majority of them stopped. However, the more... _passionate_ campers from the Ares and the Aphrodite cabins kept at it, causing Nico to curse. His little... _distraction_ took a sour turn and he knew that he would be held responsible for the mess.

'_How to make sure I don't get the blame for this...'_

He pondered, holding his chin while doing so. He was hit on the sleeve, so he could just pretend to be a victim, since that was the easiest way to go.

But then there would be Chiron's guilt tripping. Nico knew that the centaur would then ask _why_ the midget was chasing him in the first place.

What the heck was this about anyways? Was it because he landed in her food?

'_Well, hell, I should be the one pissed then. Cleaning a 70-year-old jacket that demands only dry cleaning isn't going to be easy, neither is getting the mustard smell out.'_

He joked in his mind, but grimaced. He didn't want a whole mob chasing him, but the event has made his mind more preoccupied from the more depressing side of his memories.

Overcome with a wash of relief and actual _thankfulness_ for Mickey's sudden intrusion in his life, he let out a loud, hearty laugh.

"Ha! Hahaaha!"

'_What the Tartarus? Is that guy __**mocking**__ me?!'_

Mickey immediately thought when she heard the chuckle. Immediately a string of curses popped in her head as she shouted,

"Who do you think you're laughing at, di Angelo?!"

Aggravated, Mickey **threw** the Punisher at Nico with such force that it miraculously made its way to him.

Right at his head.

The impact had Nico surprised, to say the least, and he lost his footing.

Again, everything went into slow motion as he made his descent to the hard ground, not shadow traveling as they were in broad daylight with not a shadow in sight, and Mickey bounded a few long steps before jumping, her landing being Nico's back.

"Blarrg!"

Nico exclaimed when he felt Mickey's sudden weight on his back and his stomach being squished midair.

'_Girl is heavier than she looks.'_

He commented, and let his face hit nose-first on the ground.

"Ha! This is what you get, di Angelo for ruining the only thing I love! Food!" Mickey shouted, digging her dirty shoe on his back.

In response, she heard only a _'mmph'_ as Nico's face was still on the ground.

It was during her greatest moment of victory, Mickey finally heard the slurs and colorful language of the other demigods behind them.

"Oh my gods." She whispered as she eyed the crowd for a full three seconds before abandoning the son of Hades and ran like hell, leaving him to bite the dust and be trampled.

'_How did I see them earlier?!'_

Mickey thought as she ran, rushing her way into the foliage of the forest near Camp Half-Blood.

Nico, his face in the dry mud and his mouth tightly closed so no dust could get in, was astonished that Mickey only reveled in her glory for five seconds.

'_She finally noticed the mob.'_

He thought, and then used his arms to lift his face as he stared at Mickey's retreating figure.

'_What a dimwit.'_

Then he heard the angry shouts behind him.

"We're after you too, di Angelo!"

'_What the hell? Why?!'_

He asked in his head with a incredulous face, but as he saw the fires of rage within the Ares and Aphrodite and Demeter campers, especially one of a certain Clarisse, he scrambled up and followed Mickey's general direction into the forest.

Both Mickey's and Nico's sneakers slapped the ground with each step and ran furiously as the mob's started slowing down.

"I can't... I can't breath..." said one son of Demeter, whose prized white petunia was defiled by a hideous brown paintball. In blind rage, he was the first of the people to chase Mickey, but now he lost the steam of anger to go on.

"Hey, Clarisse! We should just quit it, the scrawny bastards won't slow down." An Ares boy said this time. He had watched his half sister's favorite spear be colored purple during a transition of activities, and also saw the demonic aura she emitted. He knew better than not to follow her in the pursuit of killing Evans and di Angelo.

"Hmph. Lucky twits." Clarisse replied, looking at where Nico followed Mickey in the forest.

"They better hope that the monsters get them and not me." She growled and made her way back to the Ares cabin, only to later find out it was decorated with pink.

Now back to Mickey, who also lost the steam to go on, and was crouching next to a boulder.

"Oh gods! My back hurts!" She wailed and rested her head on the rock.

Then a rustle was heard at her right.

Surprised, Mickey stood up suddenly, grimacing at the ache she felt on her back, but relaxed as soon as she saw Nico.

"Oh, it's only you." She said, and dropped back to her sitting position.

'_Of all the people I could have ended up meeting in the woods, it __**had**__ to be him.'_

She scowled, not noticing that Nico sat on top of the rock she was resting her back on.

"Happy now, Tinkerbell?" Nico asked, breathing normally while Mickey was breathing heavily.

"Shut up, ya asshat~! I'm too tired for this!" Mickey replied, totally out of breath. She must have been high, or drunk, during that incidence, because now she was feeling the hangover any drunk person would feel the next morning.

"Heh." Nico snickered at her current state, as the whole run was a breeze for him. Then he looked around, trying to look through the foliage.

Mickey, noticing all his squinting and such said to him, breathlessly,

"No matter how much you want it, you are not going to get x-ray vision like that. Trust me, I've tried." Then began fanning herself with her hand.

"That's not what I'm trying to do. Clarisse and her gang are still waiting near where I entered, so I can't go back that way." Nico replied, sensing their life force.

You mean, where **we** entered, so **we** can't go that way." Mickey emphasized, thinking,

'_Arrogant bastard.'_

"I would have said that, but I don't give a rat's ass on how you get out of here." Nico said as he stood up, and started walking away from the boulder.

"Wait up!" Mickey said, following him. Nico sighed at this, but decided not to say anything as he's already seen the chaotic power Mickey had once she got mad.

For a few, sweet seconds, the walk was quiet until the daughter of Hermes disrupted it again.

"So, gonna tell me what was your deal this morning?"

"Nope." Nico replied, and chose this as his default reply now on for her.

"Do you know where we are?"

"Nope."

"Do you know how to get back?"

"Nope."

"You don't know how to get back?!"

"Nope."

"..."

"..."

"Are you listening to me?"

"Nope."

"Hey."

"Nope."

"Are we gonna die."

"Half of us are."

"Half-w-what!? Hey!"

Mickey started to lunge at Nico, but he quickly sidestepped to the left to dodge her, causing her to land face-first on the ground.

"Doesn't feel so good being on the ground, does it?" Nico quipped as he stepped over her.

Mickey was amusing to him, to say the least, and a quiet walk in the woods could end up in a suicide crime.

'_Probably best to keep her, for now.'_

He thought, then picked up a stick to poke her with.

"Oi. Get up. It's gonna take a while to get back to camp."

"..." Mickey ignored him and kept her face on the ground where twigs scratched her face.

"When we reach camp, we'll end up in the Capture the Flag grounds." He continued, all the while poking the girl's head with the end of the twig.

After what seemed to be an eternity of poking for Mickey (which was perhaps a minute), she growled like a lion and roughly grabbed the stick from Nico, snapping it in half.

"Just go and disaparate like Harry Potter to the North Pole, you black blob!" Mickey shouted, kicking her feet, creating dust bunnies.

'_Harry Potter?'_

Nico had read the series when he was in Westover Hall, and apparently you had to have green eyes and black hair to be a hero, like Percy. He used to read books, taking breaks often to ease the pain on his eyes from the floating words, but felt hollow whenever he finished one. When he said this to Bianca, she just told him he was being a bit too sensitive and melodramatic.

"I'm too tired." He blandly replied, distracted, making Mickey shove her face back on the dirt.

Now he was thinking about her. Would he be doomed to be like this forever? Holding grudges was the fatal flaw for the children of Hades, he knew that, and tried different methods to help him cope with it, such as becoming more patient. While staying with an unstable bomb like Mickey, he had to turn his own personality more secure.

He remember when he felt happiest. When his father had finally showed pride and patted him while Percy and the others were getting their gifts for saving Olympus.

Though he didn't get any credit nor any recognition from the gods, Nico never felt as happy as that.

'_Is that going to be the only time I ever feel loved?'_

He thought, dazed, just staring off into the distance.

Something was broken about him, Mickey knew as she observed the son of death. Though she hadn't seen it in her reckless stages of anger and surprise, Nico seemed to radiate fear and death themselves by just standing there. She was amazed that a guy like him, a person who seemed to scorn the living, was even this... _nice_ to her.

Mickey rested her chin on her hand as she pondered what could have happened to make him the demigod he was today. She knew that many people, who might start as completely happy with themselves and where they stood in the world, would get permanent scars of what happened to them just because they were a child of a god.

Mickey saw this everyday.

People who would go crazy, who would into fits of rage, who would withdraw from everyone. Camp Half Blood wasn't a fluffy summer camp where everyone was normal and everyday was a comedic love drama. People came here to fight.

It's just that the stronger ones made it seem like everything was fine, like the Stolls or another large number of campers who wanted to forget the trauma of first seeing a grecian monster, and look up to a happy, funny, future.

Mickey, she guessed, could be called as one of those people. But Nico di Angelo, he had agony and misery written all over his face. He withdrew from the world and lived in the shadows of his history.

Only, what did happen?

'_What happened to make you as messed up as this?'_

Mickey asked in her head, but then noticed his dark eyes losing life. The shine was no longer there, and it looked like his journey down memory lane was becoming too painful.

'_Godsdammit, I have to take his mind off those things!'_

"Hey, N-Nico!" Mickey suddenly shouted, and pulled the sleeve of his trench coat. The son of Hades shook his head and immediately looked at the girl, surprised.

"Uuuuuuuhhhhh..." She said, her mind blank.

'_Shit, I didn't think of what I was gonna say next.'_

"I-I like nuts..." At this, Nico rolled his eyes in disdain and scoff, annoyed.

"If that's the smartest thing you can thing of to say, then you might as well keep it in your hollow head." He said in a snarky tone, irritated, but otherwise thankful for Mickey's idiocy. It reminded that he was still stuck in a forest with a nutjob.

Mickey made a forced smile to hide her peeved opinion on him (_'Ungrateful week old spaghetti.'_), however was actually content to see that cocky side of him. It showed that he had the will to live yet another day.

"Can you help me up?" She asked in a light tone, startling Nico again. He was expecting an insult and was also given the impression that she didn't want him to touch her. Most people didn't whenever they saw the bloodless shade his hands were.

"Pick up yourself." He replied anyways.

"You're a cheeky one, aren't you." Mickey said unpleasantly as she stood up with difficulty.

Midway though, both Nico and Mickey froze. The ground was shaking violently, but the half-blood couldn't see anything. The two looked left and right quickly, until Nico saw it.

He was looking directly behind Mickey, making her slowly turn her head with scared wide eyes.

Over ten feet away, bounding furiously, was a monster. It was:

"The Minotaur..."

* * *

_Author's Note_

_Hello, I'd like to start off this note with a thank you for the review! It may be only one, but I like that my first one was more than just a compliment and allowed me to see one of the ultra flaws in this story, so thank you again! Also thanks for the fave and the follow, it warms my heart! _

_*cyber hug*_

_Now, I'm sorry it took so long to post this! I'm drawing a cover for the story, and I kept getting unhappy with the results._

_And something about Nico's personality and the overall darkness(if you noticed it) of this chapter. Reading Nico's profile and history, and seeing how people always made it seem it never happened with small bits showing in his personality (like I did in the before chapters) I realized he was a much darker and traumatized person than people on this site let on. Now, that was around two years ago, and it doesn't seem like it happens nowadays, i__t's just that... I never realized before how all of these events can really affect a person. Especially when they were only written in a book and I never thought about it too much before._

_Okay, on that note, I shall say good bye for now! Chapter four should come soon as it's summer vacation for me! Bye!_


	4. Chapter 4-Unfinished Unedited

**Chapter Four- Unfinished and Unedited**

**Hello! I'm currently on an overseas trip and I'm afraid I don't have enough time to post an official chapter four of this story. So, like with chapter three, here is the unfinished and unedited chapter four to help you guys wait. I swear I'll update the actual story as soon as possible.**

**Thank You for your patience!**

* * *

_draft one_

"Holy shi-" Mickey said under breath, but couldn't finish as Nico grabbed her arm and pulled her roughly to her feet.

In a daze, Mickey immediately started running alongside him, the Minotaur right at their heels. She had never thought a monster would suddenly interrupt their not-so-pleasant conversation, but proceeded to act quickly and ran like hell was coming after them.

There was a lot of chasing for the two of them that day.

'_It seems this guy has a grudge on me.'_

Nico thought, tsking at the monster, then looked at Mickey. She looked both terrified and excited as if she was a little (well, littl**er**) girl about to go to Disney World.

Finding her expression both stupid and hilarious, Nico couldn't help but chuckle.

Mickey obviously heard the chuckle and was mad out of her mind, but willed herself to keep quiet and save energy rather than shout her head off.

Until she thought _'Fuck it'_ and let anger take control.

"This is the second time you laughed at me di Angelo, and I am NOT loving it!" Mickey shouted, clenching her fists as she was running.

Nico let a ghost of a smile linger purposely on his face to further irritate her, but looked back at the monster chasing them. Again, there was a lot of chasing going around that day.

The Minotaur was looking at them with furious red eyes and its disgusting wet nose was blowing steam out of its nostrils like a locomotive. And hell, did it look mad. Maybe it remembered Nico.

The boy cursed in ancient greek. He didn't have enough energy to shadow travel again, nor could he conjure skeletal warriors with only a pint sized amount of stamina left in him.

'_This is that midget's fault.'_

Nico thought, irked, causing Mickey to look at him.

"Hey! I can tell what you're thinking through that robot face! This is NOT my fault!" She hollered, seriously tempted to pick up a large rock so she could throw it at his face.

"Said Dopey to the other six dwarves when their cart of diamonds went missing." Nico made yet another Disney comeback, pissing Mickey off even more, despite them being chased by the Minotaur.

"If you got enough steam to make stupid cheap shots, then use your power to banish this half man half bull thing and let's go back to camp!" Mickey said.

'_This girl...'_

The son of Hades thought, annoyed again by how she didn't remember the first answer in using his powers.

"I told you! I'm tired! I can't use my power half-heartedly otherwise they go out of control!" Nico shouted, and smelled the rank fumes coming from the monster's breath. The boy looked back and saw he was near enough to see the yellowness of the Minotaur's fangs.

'_He's close!'_

Nico was surprised that the Minotaur was already this close to them. It growled and raised its fists high in the air.

The only thing Nico saw before the monster made its impact on the ground was the necklaces of all the campers prior to him hanging from its horns.

"Split up!" He yelled while jumping to the left, leaving Mickey in shock. Luckily for her, she was born with fast reflexes and managed to get the message before jumping to the right as the Minotaur made its blow on where the two should have been.

'_Eesh! Way to close!'_

Mickey thought while landing roughly on her already throbbing back. She hissed in pain, but got to her feet anyways.

When she got up to see the situation, she saw the Minotaur's eyes glaring at her.

Mickey kept silent out of pure terror as is sniffed thoroughly in front of her as she stared disgusted, at the slobber and blood that was pouring out of the monster's snout and mouth.

'_EW EW EW EW EW...'_

She thought, but then the unthinkable happens.

The monster ignores her and moves on.

Seeing Mickey's history, the Minotaur was the first monster that had ever approached her in her short demigod life, and now it _ignores_ her.

Mickey wasn't sure if she should be offended or extremely relieved, but she decided to choose the latter.

The grecian monster instead fiercely attacked Nico that was behind it. It pawed the ground that was littered with leaves, branches, and thorns, and charged at full speed towards the boy.

Nico, who had turned his ring into his Stygian iron sword, raised his right hand as if he was holding a string puppet, and threw it towards the Minotaur.

Meanwhile, pieces of the ground had levitated at his command, turning black and sharp as a child of Hades commanded it to, and speared the monster's thick fur skin.

As the Minotaur wailed in pain, Nico shouted to Mickey.

"Hey, Jiminy Cricket! Run!" And started his dash.

Mickey, annoyed at the sound of yet another nickname, also joined his dash, watching the monster forcefully pull out the sharp black rocks.

"What's the game plan?!" Mickey asked, refusing to use a smaller voice or else she wouldn't be heard over the monster's roars.

"Run." Nico responded, looking straight ahead.

For a slight moment, the daughter of Hermes was silent as the simplicity of his so-called plan before she lost her (not so) cool.

"Run?! That's it!? I thought you were smart at things like this!" Mickey was really panicking, and her reactions were really pissing off Nico's, though lengthened through practice, short temper.

"Well, excuse me if I seem to be a BIT short-handed he-!" Nico began shouting back, but his sentence was cut off when the Minotaur suddenly made another punch to the ground and separated the two demigods.

The earth suddenly rose up in jagged blades of rock, throwing the son of Hades into the air, causing him to lose his grip on his sword.

'_Shit!'_

He thought as he watched the black sword fall out of his hand with wide dark eyes, until his vision was altered to the Minotaur's face.

Nico's last breath was knocked out when the Minotaur suddenly grabbed him around his stomach, the monster's face being even more ugly up close.

Mickey, watching what was happening and panicking over what to do, was racking her brain for different methods or what she could do to help.

'_Okay, what can children of Hermes do? They can steal. OH YEAH, STEALING IS __SO__ GOING TO HELP US IN THIS SITUATION!'_

A dark glint pierced her gray eyes, and she saw Nico's black sword impaled to the ground. Immediately she ran for it and reached for the hilt. A minor dull pain entered her hand, but it was definitely something she could ignore.

'_I guess I'm just going to have to 'borrow' this then.'_

Mickey thought and charged in the direction of the monster tightly gripping Nico's stomach.

'_I feel like I'm going to explode._'

The mentioned son of death weakly thought as he struggled within the monster's hold, holding his breath yet at the same time gasping for air. The pressure was cracking his bones, and he knew that the Minotaur never had enough patience for this sort of kill. Both figures didn't notice Mickey's arrival to the scene, and as a child of a certain tricky god, Mickey used this as an advantage.

Hurriedly she raised the blade and said:

"I don't owe you anymore!"

To Nico, and threw the blade at the Mintotaur's back, piercing it strong enough to make it fall snout-first onto the ground. At the same time it released the demigod in its claws.

'_Godsdammit, he's gonna go splat!'_

Mickey exclaimed to herself and ran towards where she thought he would land.

'_Okay, I can catch him I can catch him...'_

She chanted in her mind as she fumbled and finally chose to stand still as she waited for Nico's arrival.

Obviously Mickey wasn't thinking too much as a guy like Nico, who was both heavier and taller than her, litterally feel on her, both crashing to the ground.

"Oh gods, get off me!" Mickey wheezed under the boy's body, banging her fists on the ground.

"Yeah yeah, I get it." Nico said, and painfully rolled over, breathing heavily.

Mickey also rolled away, and slowly stood to her feet with a lot of effort. Their hard breathing were in sync, and the Minotaur's body turned to sand. Mickey watched in awe as the monster disappeared in thin air, Nico's sword clattering to the ground.

While the boy was recuperating on the ground, she walked to where the sword was and picked it up.

Again the tiny pain in her hand followed, but Mickey didn't give much thought to it.

She survived her very first monster attack, but even then the Minotaur wasn't pursuing her. In a daze, Mickey took out a medallion she ket hidden under her shirt and stared at it.

"Hey, Dopey!" Nico called out suddenly. On a reflex, Mickey again hid the medallion and called back to him.

"What?"

"How are you holding that?"

The question took the girl by surprise. How do you hold a sword? Well...

"Well, I'm holding it in my right hand... and my thumb's over the skull thing-"

"No not that. That sword is made out of Stygian iron." Nico said, as if that alone would make Mickey realize something. Obviously, he overestimated her knowledge and interest of greek mythology and irons.

"So...?" Nico sighed ludly, not sure whtether or not the girl was dumber than she looked. With those gray eyes, Mickey could easily pose as a daughter of Athena.

Then again... There was one other god those eyes reminded him of.

Cutting off his thought, Nico just rollled his eyes at the daughter of Hermes and proceeded.

"Stygian iron is a type of iron that can only be used by Hades and his children, and maybe a few other Underworld deities." He said, gesturing at the sword.

"Don't you feel anything?" The boy prodded, not believing that a daughter of _Hermes_ of all gods would be able to even touch it with her pinky.

"Well... it hurts a little but not much. What, is my hand gonna catch fire soon?" Mickey asked in a deadly serious voice, and threw Nico's sword to ground in surprised flurry when he didn't respond quickly enough.

"All I know was that, A, you weren't supposed to be **able** to touch it, and B, you're not **allowed** to touch my sword." The son of Hades snidely replied, and lifted the Stygian iron sword in his left hand.

"Oh, I'm sorry, JIMMY NEUTRON. I suppose, I should've let you just get squeezed to death, right, DI ANGELO." Mickey shouted, making angry faces and prancing in place. Nico narrowed his eyes in confusion as he watched her skit.

"Oh yeah, I can use cartoons as insults too, Neutron! Your big head and big mouth got us in this mess!" the girl shouted, now on a roll.

"Me?! Who ran through camp with a friggin paint ball gun!? Who came up to me with a shooting challenge?!" Nico yelled back. With all the mishaps that's happened to him, especially all in one day, he was just about ready to explode just like his shouting partner.

"Who destroyed all me precious food!?"

"For the love of the gods, it was just food! You could've just gotten more!"

"I would continue, only you're so obnoxious, my words will only go from one ear to ther other!"

"Ha, you're such a fat head, you don't even know when you're describing yourself, you midget cyclops!"

"What did you just say, bones for brains!?"

"You heard me!"

Mickey griited her teeth and with deranged eyes that almost perfectly mirrored Nico's black ones, she glared at the boy until she could take no more.

Letting out a war scream, she threw herself on Nico, slapping his pale face and shouting ut insults

Nico easily grabbed her arms and both tumbled to the ground, using an assortment of punches, slaps, and kicks to hurt each other. Bloody noses and bruises and all, the two didn'y really care what happened to each others faces.

Really, they both cared more of pride rather than the scratches on their face.

The two raging demigods spent almost an hour falling, scratching, biting and rollng around on the dirt to feed their bloody tantrum.

Affter what seemed to be a lifetime of brawling, Mickey and Nico finally lost the power to go on with a fight that seemed to start because of their boiling tempers.

"Okay... okay... Time out! Time... out..." Nico called out, exhasted. He should have taken that nap instead of just sulking in the cabin earlier. If he did, then he would be able to personally defeat the remains of Mickey;s dignity.

"Ha... If you need one..." the daughte ro fHermes breathed out, even though she was just about to call a break herself at the same moment.

Both were leaning on the opposite sides of a wide tree, breathing hard with stinging injuries all over their faces arms, and shins.

Nico was blemished with blood-spilling finger scratches and purplish bruises on his forehead and a dozen swellings on his shin, along with an array of bitemarks along his arms-even through the cloth of his new jacket.

Mickey was in a more serious state, as the son of Hades was a much more experienced fighter, though it was only because of the small detail that he wasn't accustomed to fight without his sword Mickey wasn't totally slaughtered.

Decorated with black-and-blue marks on her right cheek, and a cut from twigs still red and bleeding, and just a large number of contusions just about everywhere. Needless to say, the girl looked as if she was just coming from a fierce, year-long war, when it was only an hour-long fist fight.

"Gods... Everywhere hurts." She complained, rubbing her arms while grimacing.

"At least I didn't **bite** you." Nico talked back, but both were much too tired to continueb their contest of insulting each other.

"Hey... Where are we?" Mickey asked again, eyeing her surroundings. Everything just looked the same, trees and trees and-oh wait! More trees.

Nico also looked around, then closed his eyes, looking for clarisse's murderous life force, but it was no where to be found. In fact, the only people alive in Nico's sensing range was himself and Mickey.

"Don't know." He said simply, then concentrated back to breathing.

"Okay." Mickey didn't have much a reaction to what she heard. Her mind was finally free of rage and the adrenaline had worn out. She realized what a bitching temper she was having that day, and tried to find where it all started.

_'I guess it was when Nico fell on my food and destroyed everything happy.'_

Mickey concluded.

_'I love food too much.'_

Mickey cast a long glance at the arm of the boy sitting on the opposite side of the tree.

He hands were bare, her bite marks fairly obvious against his pale skin.

Guilt creeped up through her spine once she realized how much damage she caused to people around her.

_'Gods, I messed up today. Big time. I have to say sorry to everyone back at camp.'_

She tiredly thought, her gray eyes clouded with depression and her brown hair wet with sweat and all over the place. The girl blew a curled strand out of her face and absent-mindedly thought of ways to take her temper.

_'Maybe I should go watch those stress training videos…'_

While Mickey was calming down, Nico was flaming up in anger and desperately trying to keep it down.

'_Gods, I'm gonna sue that midget. I'll have Alecto be my lawyer and win the case.'_

Of course, in reality, Nico was thinking this half-heartedly and was jut thinking it out of spite and overall weariness of what could happen in a whole day in Camp Half-Blood.

'_I thought all these adventure-type activities that happen in one day are only in movies.'_

He brooded, then continued to curse his descision of ever coming back to camp.

Then he finally rememebred the stress training he took in spring. From watching a video from a cheap computer in Starbucks with free wifi, it was certainly surprusing when it actually showed some major effects.

Immediately he started steadily breathing and thought of the cold and shadows, just anything to cool him off.

For a few seconds (while Mickey was thinking of the same video), Nico was back to his utterly controlled self. His appearance excused, of course. His black suit jacket was torn and dirty with mud and leaves, while his hair was sticking up from wet mud and his eyes having darker bags under them as well. He looked no better a mess than Mickey.

'_Now, how did I end up here?'_

Nico contemplated. He hated being lost when he's run out of fuel for shadow traveling. That meant that there was no way out unless they had a map.

And godsdammit, he didn't have a freaking map!

The boy grumbled as he leaned on the tree, and suddenly detected the sound of breathing.

Oh right, Mickey was stuck with him here too.

He glanced at the girl's exposed arms and guilt-tripped himself when seeing the black and blue marks all over.

'_Her face can't be any better either.'_

Pangs of guilt came to him as he saw how beaten up Mickey was. Maybe he should of held back.

He didn't mean for her to get seriously hurt or anything, but now he was worried whether or not the daughter of Hermes was going to have enough energy to make it back.

'_It'd be a pain to drag her back.'_

He thought, but once again glanced and winced at the dozens of bruises that covered her arms.

'_I hate having a conscience.'_

Nico's inner voice grumbled and he sighed. Then he remembered what had happened with the Minotaur. The monster had completely ignored despite her standing right in front of it, and only went for him.

_'Even if it was only after me, it still would've crushed Mickey.'_

The son of Hades thought deeply, narrowing his eyes in doubt and confusion.

_'It can't be a coincidence.'_

Nico racked the gears in his head to move already, but no leads came to mind.


End file.
